real weddings
a happy mother of the bride
I usually don’t post these in my blog content (well in the kudos section), but I received this lovely email from a Mother of the Bride at 12:15am this morning. (And a similar email happened to my planner friend, Emilie Duncan).
Maddy + Gregg’s wedding was yesterday and it was fantastic. Small, intimate and lovely. What was personal for me was that Maddy’s father passed away few years ago, so we were extra sensitive to this issue, but we still felt that he was there in spirit.
This is the email:
Saundra,
Mere words cannot say how terrific I think you are. You made it all come together perfectly for one of the best weddings my family and I as well as our guests have ever attended. This day would not have been as happy and stress free without you. I know from a professional standpoint we were pretty small potatoes, but I could see how much you love what you do, and I am so grateful for you accepting us as your clients. You absolutely ROCK. I know I was a skeptic a year ago, but change makes believers, and I am absolutely your biggest fan.
Thank you again for putting all the special touches in to this happy happy day. You kept my baby and me smiling and worry free. You can add us to your list of references prospective clients can call and I will sing your praises from the rooftops. It was an A HA day all the way.
Warmest and heartfelt regards,
Stephanie Heine
Heart you both back!
dressing up your wedding aisle
An economical way of dressing up your ceremony is to place close attention to the details of your aisle runner. It’s the easiest way to transform the church or ceremony site into something that looks like a “wedding”.
Now the impulse might be to run out to the local store that has allocated one aisle to the theme of “weddings” and purchase a rolled up, aisle runner that is around $20. It’s made of paper, kind of like interfacing. One step on it with girls heels and it rips. It also looks like it’s worth about a buck twenty. STOP. Resist the urge to buy any paper product to walk float down the aisle to your groom.
Above are a few alternatives to your typical aisle runner. The first photo was a wedding we coordinated outside, the most challenging situation to have an aisle runner. Instead the designer laid down white dance floor. It was spectacular looking fabulous as well as comfortable for the girls in heels. Cloth aisle runners have a hard time staying on grass, that’s why you see so many outdoor weddings with flower petals as the aisle runner. Just be sure to have your planner put the roses petals down just before you walk through, wind tends to blow them away.
The second photos is an aisle runner made of white carpet! Such an interesting twist and we like to use this technique in venues that might have hardwood floors, so when the girls walk down they don’t sound like a herd of elephants.
The last photo is the an aisle runner at one of our weddings, Jenny + Adam. We didn’t do too much decor at the church, instead concentrated on the aisle. As always, we used cloth!
weird wedding mishaps:
As you know, many things can go wrong at weddings. MANY things. In the past years we have had many crazy mishaps that have happened, here’s just a few to mention:
- Recently we had a wedding party introduction that was done to a meticulously timed music intro. The groom was pretty proud of putting it together in advance. One of the bridesmaids introduced unfortunately FELL during the intro and dislocated her knee. When I say dislocated, her knee was facing the WRONG direction. She laid their screaming in pain (don’t blame her a bit) and there was a guest that is a chiropractor, he came and popped her knee back in place. The 2nd photographer shooter however, was totally grossed out and she fainted and hit her head. Update: the bridesmaid has to have surgery to fix her knee.
- A 2 year old flower girl walked down the aisle and then was taken outside by her father, because obviously she wasn’t going to be quiet during the ceremony. She was given a piece of candy, which she promptly started choking on. After about 45 seconds of her not breathing, which seems like an eternity, the candy popped out. Paramedics came to make sure she was okay. Bride never found out until the next morning.
- A bride, MOMENTS before she was to walk down the aisle, had her beaded trim along her veil break. The sound of beads hitting the floor was like a BB gun shooting off. A bridesmaid quickly grabbed it to stop the slew of beads falling and we sewed it up so she could make her wedding without her veil coming undone down the aisle.
- At the same wedding (bride with the veil), a groomsman was standing at the front of the altar and apparently locked his knees. While it didn’t seem overly warm in the church, his body temperature shot up. He fainted. Like a tree, straight over during the ring exchange.
- We planned a beautiful outdoor reception at a private residence. The bride, abhorred tents, it was not a money issue. After the guests sat down and was served salad, we check the Doppler radar system and realized that we would be seeing rain … like soon. At this point, there is no rain plan, it’s too late. I alerted the groom and we moved up the toasts and the first dances. The skies opened up and we had “sky to ground” lightening with quarter size hail. Needless to say, the guests took cover. The rain did stop and we ate, only to have the skies open up again with a good steady stream. The band’s cords were submerged under water, however, we gave the band’s “tip money” to the sound engineer and he stayed and played his personal iPod. The evening was so much fun with impromptu dancing and a sing-a-long by a guest playing the piano.
- On the eve of one of our weddings, our DJ’s establishment caught fire. The DJ was working late inside the building but made it out okay. He called the fire department, his boss and then us. We had another DJ lined up within one hour and only told the mother of the bride. The outcome was the DJ was able to make the wedding with all his equipment and the reception took place without anyone knowing the wiser. Including the bride, who was told at the very end of the evening.
Oh there is a lot more… perhaps a follow up post at a later date?
Moral of the story? No matter how much you plan, no matter how many times you call a vendor to confirm, no matter how much you want your day to go (ahem) “perfect”… life has a plan of its own. Roll with the punches and enjoy your wedding day.
What were your wedding mishaps?
jennifer + adam’s wedding
We had our first wedding in Jasper and Huntingburg, Indiana this weekend. What a fantastic area! It was such a great wedding with wonderful family (we heart Jenny’s mom, Cindy).
The new Huntingburg Event Center was fantastic! So excited to have a new venue that is up to code and is a wonderful facility. Cannot say enough good things about that venue and their staff.
Here’s a few photos from the iPhone just to capture the day. Jenny and Adam’s doggie/baby made a quick appearance after the wedding for formal photos. Too cute!
Finally a real professional photo,below of the happy wedding party in the RV transportation! CRAZY fun!
photo: Brian with Clarion Creative
why wedding planners simply love wedding photographers
fun and fabulous photos or our bride/groom by: Equinox Photography
By the time your wedding day rolls around you will have acquired many vendors. They all play an important role in making your day spectacular. Of all the vendors though, wedding planners and photographers actually spend the most time with you on your wedding day.
So in the spirit adoring admiration, here are the top reasons why wedding planners just love wedding photographers:
1. Photographers are unbelievably creative.
2. They capture precious, once-in-a-lifetime memories. Even the goofy ones (see above).
3. Their end product produces smiles, tears and a legacy.
4. Even though the wedding day is hard on their feet, legs, back, neck, arms, and trigger finger; they do not complain.
5. Blogs by photographers are inspiring, humorous and evoke emotion.
6. Modern photographers will do (almost) anything to get that unique shot.
7. They make brides and grooms feel extraordinary, on their most important day.
8. Experienced photogs are like Ninja’s; you don’t even remember seeing him/her shoot that photo!
9. They appreciate it when the wedding planner gives them a heads up on something “special” so they can get the shot.
10. Okay, let’s face it, photogs are just plain cool.
Perhaps the reason that wedding planners love wedding photographers so much is because there are some fundamental similarities in what we do, which is “create”.
Except for Reason #10, we’ll give that to the photographers, hands down.
your wedding venue, a blank canvas; finale
The finale on how we took a 4H center and transformed it into one of the most romantic wedding receptions, of ever! I can tell you the guests were BLOWN away and mouths dropped when they entered the room (if we only had pictures of that).
Remember the stage? A fantastic focal point for the cake, and it turned out better than we could of imagined. Natalie wanted a traditional head table so we put her wedding party on the floor in front of the beautiful cake display. Notice the two tall floral trees on either side!
This photo was taken from the stage looking out towards the guest tables. If you look on the far back wall, that is where we placed the food stations. To cover the roll up door and wall, we draped and uplighted the sheer white fabric. It’s an exact mirror of the draping on the stage!
Drape can be cost prohibitive, especially a room this size. So instead we used strategic LED smart lighting around the room. The uplights were beautiful and didn’t draw attention to the sterile walls, instead softly enhancing the overall look. Remember the tulle and twinkle lights? Well now with all of the other modern lightening effects, it doesn’t look so outdated!
The next three photos were taken by Equinox Wedding Photography.
I ask you, do you think you’re in a community center?
What total awesomeness of the staged wedding cake and the custom gobo light on the “dance floor”. Custom gobos are really easy to have made and add so much to your event!
The happy couple, Roddy + Natalie.
What can we say? We started setting up on Thursday for this event and broke down on Sunday. It was a long process but so worth it. It turned out to be one the most memorable weddings in 2008. It was an added bonus that Natalie and Tonya were so awesome to work with, and fun!
Hope you enjoyed the transformation, let us know if you are having to work with a challenging space!
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